19th Century Philosophy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_century_philosophy

With the tumultuous years of 1789-1815, European culture was transformed by revolution, war and disruption. By ending many of the social and cultural props of the previous century, the stage was set for dramatic economic and political change. European philosophy reflected on, participated in, and drove, many of these changes.

Philosophical schools and tendencies:
German idealism: Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Arthur Schopenhauer

Utilitarianism: In early 19th century Britain, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill promoted the idea that actions are right as they maximize pleasure and minimize pain.

Marxism: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Existentialism: Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche

Positivism: Auguste Comte. the view that the rigorous ordering of confirmable observations alone ought to constitute the realm of human knowledge.

Pragmatism: The American philosophers Charles Sanders Peirce and William James developed the pragmatist philosophy in the late 19th century.

British idealism: a revival of interest in the works of Kant and Hegel.

Transcendentalism: rooted in Immanuel Kant's transcendence and German idealism, lead by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. The main belief was in an ideal spiritual state that 'transcends' the physical and empirical and is only realized through the individual's intuition, rather than through the doctrines of established religions.